The Transitional Justice program of ARCT focuses on addressing the legacies of conflict and promoting accountability, healing, and reconciliation for survivors of torture and refugees. This program is rooted in survivor-centered approaches and aims to build a society that acknowledges past atrocities, ensures justice, and supports sustainable peace.
OBJECTIVES
Accountability and Justice: Advocating for legal processes to hold perpetrators accountable and ensure survivors’ access to justice.
Reparations for Survivors: Supporting policies and mechanisms that provide survivors with financial compensation, healthcare, and other forms of redress.
Truth and Reconciliation: Facilitating initiatives that uncover the truth about past abuses and foster dialogue for reconciliation.
CORE ACTIVITIES
Legal Advocacy and Support
Case Support: Assisting survivors in accessing legal aid and navigating justice systems to pursue accountability for wartime crimes.
Advocating for Legal Reforms: Lobbying for survivor-friendly legal frameworks, including protections for witnesses and recognition of the status of torture survivor.
Collaboration with Judicial Bodies: Partnering with local and international courts to strengthen investigations and prosecutions of war-related crimes.
REPARATIONS AND SURVIVOR SUPPORT
Policy Development: Advocating for comprehensive reparations policies, including financial compensation, healthcare access, and psychosocial support for survivors.
Implementation Support: Working with governments and institutions to ensure reparations programs are effectively implemented and accessible to survivors.
Empowering Survivors: Engaging survivors in the design and monitoring of reparations programs to ensure they meet their needs.
TRUTH-SEEKING AND DOCUMENTATION
Historical Documentation: Collecting testimonies and evidence of human rights violations, particularly cases of torture and refugee rights, to contribute to truth-seeking processes.
Oral History Projects: Recording survivors’ stories to preserve their experiences and promote societal acknowledgment of past atrocities.
RECONCILIATION AND COMMUNITY HEALING
Dialogue Initiatives: Organizing community discussions and forums to promote understanding, address stigma, and build bridges between divided groups.
Educational Programs: Raising awareness about the importance of transitional justice and the rights of survivors, particularly among youth and community leaders.
INTERNATIONAL ADVOCACY AND COLLABORATION
Engaging Global Platforms: Representing survivors’ voices in international transitional justice forums and advocating for global recognition of their rights.
Learning from Global Practices: Adapting successful transitional justice models from other contexts
IMPACT
The Transitional Justice program has contributed to:
Legal Milestones: Supporting the first successful case of justice for three victims of torture, police brutality in Strasbourg from 2006, 2014, 2025.
Reparations Progress: Influencing the creation and implementation of reparations policies that address survivors’ needs.
Truth and Acknowledgment: Ensuring that survivors’ stories are preserved and acknowledged, fostering societal recognition of abuse of power, torture and dictatorship crimes.